Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994 (ICPSR 3355)

RECIDIVISM OF PRISONERS RELEASED IN 1994
is a database containing information on each of 38,624 sampled
prisoners released from prisons in 15 states in 1994 and tracked for
three years following their release. The majority of the database
consists of information on each released prisoner's entire officially
recorded criminal history (before and after the 1994 release). Sources
for criminal history information are state and FBI automated RAP
("Records of Arrests and Prosecutions") ... (more info)

RECIDIVISM OF PRISONERS RELEASED IN 1994
is a database containing information on each of 38,624 sampled
prisoners released from prisons in 15 states in 1994 and tracked for
three years following their release. The majority of the database
consists of information on each released prisoner's entire officially
recorded criminal history (before and after the 1994 release). Sources
for criminal history information are state and FBI automated RAP
("Records of Arrests and Prosecutions") sheets, which contain records
of arrests, adjudications, and sentences. The study is the second
major recidivism study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
The first study, RECIDIVISM AMONG RELEASED PRISONERS, 1983: [UNITED
STATES] (ICPSR 8875), tracked over 16,000 prisoners released in 11
states in 1983 for three years. These two studies are the
closest approximation to "national" recidivism studies in the United
States. They are distinguished by their large sample size (over 16,000
released prisoners in the first study, 38,624 in the second),
geographic breadth of coverage (11 states in the first study, 15 in
the second), length of prospective tracking (three years from date of
release in both studies), ability to track the movement of released
prisoners across state boundaries (both studies), and multiple
measures of recidivism (both studies). Demographic data include race,
ethnicity, sex, and date of birth.

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Dataset(s)

Study Description

Citation

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Recidivism of Prisoners Released in 1994. ICPSR03355-v8. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2012-01-12. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03355.v8

Universe:
Prisoners released during 1994 in the 15 states that the
study covered. The 15 states account for about two-thirds of releases
in the United States in a given year.

Data Types:
event/transaction data

Methodology

Sample:
The following 15 state Departments of Corrections
participated in the study: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida,
Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North
Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia. These departments
supplied Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) with information on each
person released from prison in the state in 1994 (Note: Illinois
releases are for fiscal year 1994 rather than calendar year 1994).
These 15 states were chosen as a purposive sample, based on
willingness to participate, the state's relative contribution to the
overall national prison population, and the state's inclusion in the
earlier study of recidivism conducted by BJS in 1983 (see ICPSR
8875). The 15 states supplied BJS with release records on 302,309
prisoners released in 1994, approximately two-thirds of all prisoners
released in the nation. Using these records, the researchers drew a
representative sample from each state, totaling 38,624 out of the
302,309 released prisoners, stratified by most serious conviction
offense. More detailed information regarding sampling procedures can
be found in the codebook that accompanies this data collection.

Data Source:

FBI and state criminal history files, state Departments
of Corrections

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Created variable labels and/or value labels.

Standardized missing values.

Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2002-09-25

Version History:

2014-12-05 A minor change is made to the codebook.

2012-01-12 For variable POTST, values for the state of New York were adjusted per the principal investigator.

2011-03-08 All parts are being moved to restricted access and will be available only using the restricted access procedures.